New Delhi, October 1: Defending champion Vaidehi Chaudhari and Karnataka's SD Prajwal Dev will lead the exciting field in the women's and men's singles main draw respectively at the Rs 21.5 Lakh prize money 28th Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship, to be held from  Monday at the DLTA Complex in New Delhi.

The 23-year-old from Gujarat, Vaidehi has been impressive this year, winning two ITF titles which also includes her maiden ITF title that she won in Gwalior in January.

Currently ranked fifth in the country, Vaidehi will return to defend her title. However, she is expected to face a strong challenge in the women’s singles category which consists of talented players like Telangana’s Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty, Sandeepti Singh Rao of Haryana and Maharashtra’s Vaishnavi Adkar among others.

The men’s singles draw, on the other hand, features Prajwal Dev, who finished runner-up in ITF event in Thailand in June, along with defending champion Manish Sureshkumar of Tamil Nadu, Haryana’s Karan Singh and Uttar Pradesh’s Siddharth Vishwakarma.

The opening week of the event will feature singles and doubles categories of men, women, U-18 girls and U-18 boys as the qualifying rounds will take place on September 30 and October 1 while the main draw will be played from October 2 to 7. The tournament will go on till October 14.